It seems hip-hop stars are recognizing the Black Star Shine of Ghana & broadening their perspectve in audience, how to make money in a struggling music industry & how to stay relevant in a hip-hop world that has gone global & is not turning back. Both Talib Kweli & Roc Nation’s own Memphis Bleek will touch down on the hot burning sun of Accra city to celebrate the 54th year of Independence with a nation of Black Stars Rising. Africa is open for Business & slowly but surely Black America, African nationals living abroad & the hip-hop nation are recognizing the relevance & money earning & making power of Africa.

“Talib Kweli  in the Asabaako Music Festival, 3-day party on the spectacular Busua Beach in the Western region. The New York rapper will join Wanlov the Kubolor, Yaa Pono and many more Ghanaian artists for festival, sponsored by Vodafone.“ READ MORE

“Rapper Memphis Bleek of Jay-Z’s Roc Nation will be in Ghana tomorrow to participate in Ghana’s Ghana at 54 Independence Weekend Bash. Bleek will perform this Saturday on March 5th, 2011 at Ghana’s Citizen Kofi. Anticipated hit songs he will perform include: Is that Your chick ft. Jay Z and Missy Elliot, Round Here ft. T.I and Like that ft. Swizz Beatz.” READ MORE

From films to music, African-Americans are returning to their African roots for new opportunities & collaborations. Ghanaian filmmakers & music producers like Sam Kessie & Eric “Coptic” Matlock are holding up the Black Star flag heavy in America & taking African-Americans back to their roots with their upcoming projects & collaborations. The entire world is taking heed to the fact that the UN has declared 2011:International Year for  Descendants of Africans by investing in Africa on many levels. African-Americans seem to be slower on the push to cover & invest in Africa, but it is only a matter of education which our media outlets need to do a much better job in facilitating. After nearly two years of trying to convince The Source Magazine to do a story about the rise of hip-hop in Ghana known as Hip-Life , they finally did a brief piece on their website  last week. You can’t claim to be the bible of Hip-Hop music, culture & politics when your view is limited to America & a few other international places every now & then, when the true movement of hip-hop has been global for close to a decade now.

I will never forget how a major international network like CNN did a tremendous amount of play by play coverage showcasing the people, the nation, the cuisine, the history & foundation of Ghana when the first Black president of the United States chose as his first diplomatic mission in Africa as President, to visit Ghana, the historically credited first African nation south of the Sahara to gain Independence & the greatest hub of  the slave trade & African-American roots history; while BET barely gave much coverage. We must emancipate ourselves from the fear & mental slavery that keeps African-Americans away from Africa because non but ourselves can free our minds.

If you step on the streets of Accra you will see murals of Biggie, 2pac, Jay Z etc., but ask any African-American hip-hop lover if they know about Reggie Rockstone, who is affectionately known as the granpapa -founder of Ghana’s modern day hip-hop movement known as hip-life; yet he has made songs with artists like Snoop Dogg, Wyclef Jean, Beenie Man & many more that are known worldwide. Many more have never heard of Geydu Blay Ambolley ,who popularized hip-hop style of music in Ghana in the 70’s before it was recognized & named hip-hop in America. He is currently challenging the Guinness book of world records to recognize his contribution to hip-hop & to get the facts right accordingly. This is the year of African descendants & we must collectively work together from Africa to the Diaspora to show our global greatness & forward movement by utilizing the wind of change in Africa that brought about the Pan-African blueprint set by great leaders like W.E.B Dubois, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Marcus Garvey, Patrice Lumumba, Sekou Toure, Jomo Kenyatta, Macolm X & so many other historical greats.

“Africa’s future is up to Africans,” U.S. President Barack Obama said when he addressed Ghana’s parliament in July 2009. “The people of Africa are ready to claim that future. And in my country, African Americans — including so many recent immigrants — have thrived in every sector of society. We’ve done so despite a difficult past, and we’ve drawn strength from our African heritage.” As Obama spoke, I couldn’t help thinking how fitting it was for the first black president of America to have chosen Ghana as the destination of his first official visit to Africa. It was a wonderful tribute to a long-standing and important relationship that has defined our mutual destinies…” READ MORE

BREAKING NEWS: THIS JUST IN:
“The Asabaako Music Festival will go on as initially planned without an appearance by US hiphop star, Talib Kweli following difficulties in bringing the rapper to Ghana, as recently advertised. For many fans of the rapper, they first heard the sad news when Talib Kweli tweeted that he was disappointed to announce that he wouldn’t be able to perform in Ghana...” READ MORE

The dead have not even been accounted for nor received proper burials yet & America is already talking about adopting Haitian children instead of setting the foundation to keep families together. We have anti-immigration laws in this country calling for the deportation of over 30,000 Haitian immigrants, many of whom have American born children who they will be separated from if the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) remains only temporary -to be recalled at America’s leisure without consideration of the devastation to families; yet we are going on about taking Haitian children from their homeland & families & adopting them out to Americans- huh? We always say we want to help, but our help seems to come too often at a devastating cost. This is a time & lesson in global humanity & humanitarian servicing, where we should reevaluate policy, how we administer aid & how we really help nations & people in times of need & tragedy. We could have helped Haitians long ago by aiding them to utilize their ripe land for their own agricultural & economic benefit instead of utilizing it to build many wealthy nations, while forcing them into poverty & dependency. We could have helped with infrastructure that would be able to stand the tests of nature instead of losing thousands of lives & destroying families before the earthquake hit. We could have helped by not aiding in or standing idle to the destabilization of Haiti’s government long before the earthquake. We did not do all that, so at a time when we have the opportunity to right our wrongs -the first thing for us to think about is building a nation back to its glory of old as an even better, stronger nation with its families intact & people united in the continuation of building a great nation, not adopting out the future generation who will be the ones to carry Haiti’s torch!

When I saw this tweet from Wolf Blitzer -all I could do was shake my head & say oh no what are we thinking & not again.

Wolf Blitzer | Washington D.C.
“So many of you want to help Haiti. Some want to adopt orphans. CNN’s Mary Snow will report on adoption procedures in Sitroom.”

I will be watching carefully to see what this is all about, but I must say I do not like the tone & direction it is heading.

As an African I cringe at the separation of families throughout the Diaspora & Africa that was brought on by slavery -which even today still continues in many ways because of poverty & bad governance, which often give families no choice but to separate & give away or leave their children in order to seek a so called “better life” away from family. African descendants /families have been separated for far too long through the selling of the so called “better life” , which has left us with nations devastated by wars, poverty, lack of infrastructure & a perpetual disadvantage toward taking care of ourselves & believing in & living our greatness due to the fact that many of our best & brightest are taken away or drawn to the so called “better life” that the world keeps telling us can never be found at home.

The amount of money spent on Madonna & the Jolie-Pitts adopted African children’s wardrobe alone could support the villages they came from & kept them with their families. I think adoption is a noble, selfless act which I encourage all those who have the means & desire to do so, seek in great numbers; however we have to also consider if adoption is always the best way to provide a child with a better life as opposed to providing their families the help, education & aid necessary to keep the family intact. Maybe we should practice more of an “it takes a village to raise a child” motto by adopting families, not necessarily in physical form, but in the form of mental, emotional & financial support needed to help raise any and all children.

“The Greatest good u can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to them their own” (B. Disraeli)

“Of special note to international adoption are campaigns for adoptions that occur after disasters such as hurricanes, tsunamis, and wars. There is often an outpouring of adoption proposals in such cases from foreigners who want to give homes to children left in need. While adoption may be a way to provide stable, loving families for children in need, it is also suggested that adoption in the immediate aftermath of trauma or upheaval may not be the best option. Moving children too quickly into new adoptive homes among strangers may be a mistake because with time, it may turn out that the parents have survived but were unable to find the children, or there may be a relative or neighbor who can offer shelter and homes. Providing safety and emotional support may be better in those situations than immediate relocation to a new adoptive family.There is also an increased risk, immediately following a disaster, that displaced and/or orphaned children may be more vulnerable to exploitation and child trafficking.
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_adoption)

“When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible.” — Jomo Kenyatta, Pan-Africanist & first president of Kenya

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/The-Case-for-Haitian-Immigrant-Amnesty-2184

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amy-wilentz/haiti-and-the-depths-of-d_b_424806.html

http://www.one.org/us/actnow/drophaitiandebt

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15brooks.html

http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/articles.php?aid=1663

Madonna adoption-This is a bit harsh, but great points are being made here particularly since many African countries specifically put in place residency caveats because of lessons of slavery of old & slavery of new.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6260996

This is the difference between so called good intentions of adoptions & hoping to save just one as opposed to the altruistic intentions of realizing that it taks a village to raise a child therefore families should be kept together whenever & however possible

American church group arrested on Haitian border accused of abducting children
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7009970.ece

African Union to consider “land for Haitians” plan
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60U0IV20100131

Parents ‘reclaim’ children in Haiti abduction-adoption row
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100202/ts_alt_afp/haitiquakechildrenuscrime

Help Haiti Art work by: Graphic artist KERRY DEBRUCE (check her at www.kladcreative.com)

The cultural divide between Africa & her Diasporan counterparts seems to be growing wider in America even with the first Black president of the U.SA. being of direct African parentage. The New York Times recently did an article on Africans in the Bronx who have steadily been on the receiving end of victimization & divisionist stereotypes from their American counterparts. I grew up in the battle between the two communities as a first generation American of Ghanaian parentage, but I didn’t realize that decades since my youth that this divide would be as strong as ever. I have heard Africans say “well Obama is part African that’s why he was able to have the type of drive & achievements to become president whereas someone like Jesse Jackson could not accomplish that because he does not have they same drive, intelligence & work ethic as an African”. I have heard African-Americans say that Africans think they are better than them & many other divisionist & hateful things from both sides instead of us realizing that we are all in this together.

When CNN does the next series of “Black In America” or better yet when BET decides to be truly a hub for the voices of all of its people, they should take a look at this divide & bring it out in the open, so we can move forward knowing that we are one people of African decent, who’s history started at the same side of the Atlantic ocean before we were divided & conquered. We need to be honest in our stereotypes & where they came from & even more honest & genuine about wanting to bridge the gap/ocean that has divided us for centuries. It seems a young man from South Africa brought the dialogue wide open on you tube when he asked should African-Americans call themselves African-Americans? This subject truly hit home for many Africans & African-Americans/Black Americans judging from the countless video responses.

Take a look at the stories below & remember to set your mind free!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/nyregion/20africans.html

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Name: Miles Regis
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